blue water
by rrllao
Summary: A mermaid takes interest in the world of humans and, in order to learn more about them, trades her tail for legs. Slow burn femslash, multi-chapter, Little Mermaid AU. Crossposted to AO3.
1. Chapter 1

**pairing(s)** : Manaka Mukaido/Miuna Shiodome, Tsumugu Kihara/Chisaki Hiradaira; platonic Miuna Shiodome & Sayu Hisanuma

 **warning(s)** : None for this chapter; warnings will be added per chapter when necessary.

 **notes** : Intended for Femslash February but not ready until now. It's a Little Mermaid AU/fusion featuring my favorite rare femslash pairing. The first chapter is pretty short, but the next ones are longer. Comments appreciated!

* * *

The ship overhead is one Manaka's seen before, but this is her first time seeing it up close. It's old and the dark wood is soft in between the barnacles that cover the bottom. Manaka tugs on the chain anchoring it to the ocean floor a few times out of curiosity, picks out strands of seaweed from in between the links and watches them float past her on the current. She swims back and forth the entire length of the ship, going around in circles just inside the ship's shadow.

When she surfaces she keeps as close to the ship's sides as she can, wary of attracting attention from any of the humans she's seen peering over the railing. The lights hanging over the sides cast a golden glow on the water below them and Manaka ducks down under the water whenever a voice gets too loud and close for her liking. She wants to get closer so she can observe the humans better. She swims around the ship again a few more times to try and find a place she can maybe cling to.

Up front there's a carving of a person dressed in layers of material, and Manaka is frustrated at the lack of handholds this presents her. The wood is too smooth for her to grip after a certain point, even when she extends her claws just a bit. She clings to the side of the ship until a strong wind makes the crests on her back flutter, and with a shiver of defeat she lets go and splashes awkwardly back into the water.

Her splash attracts someone to the railing, and when she surfaces their eyes meet. With only a look she's captivated. This human is staring right at her, eyes wide with surprise and, maybe, even a little fear. The moment stretches and Manaka commits this human's appearance to memory: skin that, in the glow of the lanterns, looks like the bars of soft metal that she's dug up from shipwrecks; short dark hair and even darker eyes that she finds herself drawn to. Manaka maintains eye contact with this human and swims slowly closer. She presses her hands to the ship and tilts her head up. Only a few feet separate them.

"Tsumugu, sir!"

A sharp shout breaks the atmosphere and with another loud splash Manaka flips away from the ship and hides herself just barely under the shadow of the ship, as close the surface as she dares.

"Tsumugu, sir, you're pale as a ghost. Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, Kaname. I just...I saw someone in the water just now."

"In the water?" Sharp sounds reverberate through the ship. "There's nothing there."

"There really was," the one called Tsumugu insists. "She- it looked like a girl in the water, with big blue eyes and long hair. She was looking right at me."

"If you say so, sir. I think maybe you've had too much to drink."

"I haven't had anything to drink, though, you know that...It isn't important, I won't worry about it. Anyways, it looks like there's a storm coming, so I think it's time to start the return to the harbor- "

Two sets of sound head away from her, back to the center of the ship where the other humans are located. After a while, the chain anchoring the ship to the ocean floor is pulled back up. Manaka dodges the heavy weight at the end of it and watches as the ship lurches into motion, moved by the wind blowing across the water's surface.


	2. Chapter 2

**warning(s)** : references to drowning in the first few paragraphs, nothing graphic though.

 **notes** : A flashback chapter, meant as background for why Manaka's interested in humans. In this fic, Uroko is nonbinary and I'm using they/them as pronouns. 'Shachi' is the Japanese word for orca whales (according to ). Comments appreciated!

* * *

The curiosity that drove Manaka to seek out humans in ships had started when she was young and had watched dispassionately as a particularly violent storm upended several of the ships that had shown up that day, sent their contents spiraling down into the deep dark water of her home territory. She'd seen the trunks of shining objects before, the cups made of soft gleaming metals and chains of sparkling stones and other freely floating items laid to rest in the wreckage of ships on the ocean floor, but she'd never seen the creatures that transported them. Since none of the other residents of Shioshishio were out this night, she was the lone witness to the struggle of these creatures to survive.

It seemed like they couldn't breathe underwater. Maybe they were like the seals and small whales, and had to come up to the surface to breathe the air there. They weren't doing a very good job of swimming or keeping their heads up, but she supposed it was harder for them with the storm going on. Manaka felt a twinge of something in her chest when she looked at the ones who had given up and were starting to sink to the ocean floor. There was no one to stop her if she tried to help them, and no one else had to know about it.

She knew that not all of the items lost from the ship would sink, and that there were objects that floated and could be strong enough to carry one of these creatures. They were all a lot larger than her up close. Some of them tried to kick her when they saw her, bubbles flying up from their mouths when they screamed, but she was quicker than them and avoided their hits with ease. With her arms wrapped around them she swam back up to the surface and left them near the floating objects. She did this for the remaining few and then returned to watching them from farther away. It was up to them to save themselves properly, now..

She'd investigated the aftermath of that storm with a renewed sense of purpose. Normally after such events she'd come back after a few moon cycles and scavenge for bones and other pretty things to decorate her room in Shioshishio with, but now she couldn't wait. She remembered the feeling of their bodies, soft and warm despite the cold water around them, the strange beat that echoed under their skin and the way their limbs kicked when she brought them to the surface.

The particular wreckage she headed for was still swarming with hagfish and other scavengers, who cleaned the flesh from the dead with ruthless efficiency. After shooing away some of the more stubborn ones, using her spear when a simple touch wouldn't do, Manaka settled in to examine the bones. They fell apart when she lifted them, separated into individual pieces that were light and made a clacking noise when she brought them together. She laid herself out by one that was still whole and compared herself to the bones. Some of their structure was similar, like the arms and hands, but their hands didn't have the sharp claws that hers did. The skull and neck and spine looked like the ones she'd seen in the seafolk's graveyard outside the city, but the spine was shorter and ended in a funny little tail that didn't seem like it would be good for anything.

It was the bottom half of the skeletons that interested her the most. She examined these bones until the last light finally left her in the dark, and she'd had to retreat back to the light and warmth of Shioshishio. Hikari was upset when she came back with only a few handfuls of stones to show for the time she'd spent away from the city.

"What's out there that interests you so much?" he asked her while she organized her finds. She regarded him silently as she thought about her answer.

"The storm from a few suns ago. I was there and I watched the whole time. I wanted to know more about the creatures that came from above."

"Humans. You wanted to know more about humans?" Hikari asked. His fins flared as he laughed. "Why would you want to? They can't even swim properly."

"Is that what they're called?! I had no idea! I've never observed them before," Manaka said excitedly. "Hikari, I swam right up to some of them, and I touched them, and they were so warm. I want to know why."

"Idiot! Don't do that," he scolded. "We're not supposed to get near them. Especially if they're still alive. They tell stories about us, you know. The ones that live."

"How do you know?" she asked him, eyes shining with curiosity. She put the last of her scavenged items away on a flatter part of the shelf in front of her and turned to face him properly. He was frowning and not looking at her, instead fiddling with one of the long ropes of pretty stones she kept draped over the entrance to her room.

"Akari told me once before, and that's only because Uroko told her."

Manaka sucked water past her gills in surprise. Hikari never liked to talk about his older sister Akari, who had disappeared moons and moons ago and whom no one had ever heard from again. Even less than that did he mention Uroko. The scale of the sea god that watched over the villages, Uroko had a reputation as someone who could grant your deepest wish but at a fairly steep price, and no one approached them unless they were desperate. Hikari and his family were the ones who maintained the sea god's temple, and behind it was the canyon that Uroko was said to live in. It figured that Uroko would know more about these humans than other seafolk, who were generally reluctant to leave the territory they were born in and even more reluctant to do anything when it came to dealing with anything that came from the world above the water. After all, anything one Uroko learned was shared with all the other Uroko, one for each of the many seafolk cities that dotted the ocean floor like holes in a sponge.

"I didn't know she'd talked to Uroko before," Manaka replied cautiously. The holy light from the sea god's temple that she kept in a large scallop shell fluttered in the current when she said Uroko's name out loud. Hikari watched the hot blue light with a wary eye, fins flaring back and forth with worry.

"I didn't either. Not until she told me. I told her not to go back to them, but she did, and humans were the last thing she talked to me about. I don't want you to disappear like she did."

There was that hot feeling in her chest again, the one she didn't have a name for that left her feeling a bit like someone had flipped her onto her back. Hikari had changed after Akari disappeared, had stopped being brash and hiding the way he felt. She knew that he cared for her in a deeper way than most of their other yearmates cared for each other, but his feelings confused her and she couldn't bring herself to return them. She wasn't sure she even could. Whenever he expressed concern for her she found herself agreeing to whatever he'd said, even if she didn't really like it, just to make the hot feeling go away. This time, he asked her to stay away from the humans the next time there was a storm. She agreed and he'd left shortly after that.

That promise didn't extend to examining the bones the humans left behind, however, and more than once Manaka wriggled her way out of chores to spend hours poring over the shipwrecks out by the coral reefs and submerged rocks. Sometimes she even took Hikari with her, when she wanted to examine the wrecks in deeper waters. There were larger predators out there than the seafolk, like the black and white _shachi_ whales that sometimes strayed into the territory and were known to attack and eat smaller seafolk. If one of the whales decided to seriously go after them, there wasn't much she or Hikari could do to stop it, but it made Hikari feel better to accompany her and if it got him to stop complaining to her then she would put up with it.

Manaka examined more than just bones, though. She looked for the tall blocks of stone that often went overlooked by other seafolk scavengers, the stone blocks that she now knew had to be depictions of humans. They were hard to find, and often weren't very recognizable as such. The bright colors used to decorate the blocks had faded or been worn away, leaving blank white stone. But many of them still looked like the humans she'd seen that day, and with Hikari's help she brought a few of the more complete and less heavy stones back to the grotto near her rooms. While those and other finds helped bank her curiosity, it was never long before something made her need for knowledge flare up again. It was an endless cycle and after many years of this she was starting to go a little wild with the need to do something more.

It was what had driven her to break her promise to Hikari on a night when she could sense a storm coming on while one of the ships she recognized was still traveling through her territory. The idea of seeing more humans again made her shiver with excitement.


	3. Chapter 3

**warning(s)** : references to drowning throughout the first half of the chapter, nothing graphic though.

 **notes** : Flashback chapter is over, now it's back to the present. The voice I have in mind for Manaka is her dub voice! She's super cute in the dub, and that's what I think of when writing her. A reminder that I'm writing Uroko as nonbinary in this fic and that I'm using they/them as pronouns. In the previous chapter, there was supposed to be a credit to jisho dot org but I didn't realize FFN still won't let you put urls in stories, so it broke, sorry about that. As usual, your comments are appreciated!

* * *

When the storm breaks, Manaka is still the only seafolk in the area. This storm is a small one, but no one else wants to risk getting carried away by a strong current. She keeps an eye on the ship as it's swept about in the waves, waiting for the moment when it overturns and spills its cargo into the ocean's waiting arms.

As it turns out, only two humans end up in the water, and amazingly enough one of them can swim. Not very well compared to a seafolk, of course, but well enough that he's able to look for the other human, who can't swim and seems to be sinking like a stone. Manaka watches as the swimmer catches up to the sinking human and brings them back up the surface. She pops up to watch as the two are hauled back to their ship by the other humans, who are pulling on the rope the swimmer is holding onto. The human who had been sinking is brought back up first, and the swimmer seems like they're going to make it as well- except then a particularly large wave slams the ship and sends it spinning away from the swimmer, who is left to flail around in the water while the ship gets farther away and the waves continue to swell and crash.

Manaka is still watching as the swimmer starts to tire. She feels like maybe she should do something to help this human out but isn't sure what she can do. There are no floating objects for them to cling to. It isn't until a flash of lightning illuminates exactly who the swimmer is that she makes up her mind. The swimming human is the one she'd made eye contact with earlier, the one with golden skin and dark eyes that had been called Tsumugu. A sharp feeling rises in her veins and she _knows_ that she doesn't want this one to die. Her mind is racing as she thinks of what she needs to do once she has the drowning human in her arms. She brings him back up to the surface and struggles to keep him there so he can breathe. He clings to her and drags her down more than once but the sharp feeling in her veins propels her back up every time.

Some time later Manaka finds herself in shallower water and then at the shoreline, which is shallow enough that she starts having trouble swimming and has to resort to wiggling on her stomach while dragging the human next to her. She makes sure his mouth is above the water and that he's still breathing, which she checks by placing her head on his chest. She manages to drag him to where the sand is almost untouched by water, wincing as sand grates against the soft parts of her body and gets stuck underneath her scales.

She keeps an eye on the human all through the night, making sure that he's tipped on his side to empty whatever water made its way into his chest. He doesn't wake and for a while she thinks he died even though she'd gone to all this trouble. Then she remembers the blood he'd trailed from a wound to the head for a while, and figures that might have something to do with why he's not waking up. Still, when the sun comes up, she retreats to an outcropping of rocks deeper out in the water so she can submerge herself again and breathe properly.

It isn't until the sun is fully overhead that Tsumugu stirs, retching water over the sand and groaning. A flushed feeling suffuses her and Manaka sighs into the water, feeling strangely weak. She watches as he moves, noting how much more graceless humans were on land than when in water, but also fascinated by the way he moved the bottom half of his body. She'd never known that those bones were meant to move separately like that.

Manaka quietly leaves once another group of humans come barreling down the beach in a riot of noise, rather like seals. They surround Tsumugu and make loud sounds that don't really register as speech to her. But she supposes he's safe now, and only turns back to look once on her way back out to deeper water and Shioshishio.

Hikari is, of course, furious with her for having been gone for so long. She lies to him for the first time ever and says she got swept away by a current, and that it took her longer than usual to get back because she wanted to check for new wrecks. The lie is flimsy and both of them know it. Hikari doesn't bother her after hearing her out. It's strange to be on bad terms with him, and Manaka hopes that he can find it in him to forgive her for what she's about to do next.

The next time Hikari is out hunting in a deeper area of the ocean, Manaka makes her move. She gathers some of her prettiest stones and a few of the more interesting objects she's gathered from wrecks, and sets off towards the sea god's temple. Uroko is said to live in a cave farther back past the temple, but how far back exactly she has no idea. So she swims slowly once she's past the temple, keeping an eye out for any likely caves. The light from the temple's flames doesn't quite reach and soon she's swimming in near darkness, lit only from what little sunlight reaches this far down. There's a strange lack of life in this area, too, so it's a shock when a little silver fish appears at her side seemingly out of nowhere. It squawks at her repeatedly and nips at her back crests, so she turns around to follow it. It leads her to a shelf that's closer to the temple than she thought it would be, and then to the opening of a cave. Manaka approaches it apprehensively, waiting for the little fish to swim in before she follows it.

Uroko's lower half is that of an enormous octopus. It startles her badly enough to drop a few of the items she'd brought with her. Uroko's laugh is loud and a little mean and fills the cave.

"Not what you were expecting, I take it," they say with a sly smile. Manaka shakes her head, still too stunned to speak. The rumours she's heard about Uroko are true, it seems. Uroko is known for the uncommon shapes of their lower halves, and Shioshishio's Uroko has one of the rarest.

Uroko's eyes are the same shade of bright blue that all seafolk have, but outlined in red and seemingly sharp enough to pierce through her. The tentacles of their lower half are restless, curling up and grabbing at things in the cave that Manaka can't really see. They're resting on a ledge in front of a smaller shrine to the sea god, and the little silver fish that guided her here is swimming in circles around Uroko's torso.

Manaka still hasn't made a move to pick up the items she's dropped, reluctant to take her eyes off of Uroko in case they made a move while she wasn't looking. A tentacle snakes out towards the dropped items and carefully brings them back towards Uroko. The sea witch observes the way the glow from the holy blue lights makes the strands of clear stones shine flecks of colored light around the cave, and hums approvingly to themself. They give Manaka a look with their head tilted at an angle and hum again.

"I take it you didn't swim all the way out here just to show me some diamonds."

"I-I didn't," Manaka stammers. She ducks her head and tries to think. "I wanted to ask...is it true? Do you really grant wishes?"

"It depends," Uroko drawls, leaning over onto a rock to rest their chin on their hands. They're still staring at her with eerie intensity and Manaka anxiously fidgets with the items in her hands. "What are you wishing for?"

"I want legs! Um, I mean, I want to go and see what it's like on the surface, on land, so I need legs to do that, right? What I mean is...I want you to turn me into a human. Can you do that?"

Uroko stretches and uncurls from their rocky throne. A tentacle reaches behind them and snatches a thin bone staff from its lying place. Uroko gives Manaka another unamused look.

"I can, but...I'm not sure you really have anything I want as payment."

Manaka looks at the handful of stones and bones she brought with her and feels embarrassed that she thought these would be enough. She clutches them to her chest and looks back up at Uroko. The light in the cave casts their face in dark shadow and feels more ominous than it did when she first arrived.

"I don't have anything else to give," she says slowly.

"Oh, but you might." The tip of the bone staff touches her throat and trails down her arm. Light twinkles off her skin in patches from where the staff presses into her arm. "I don't really care why you want to be human, but it's not going to be easy for you. There's a lot of things humans can't do that seafolk can. If you want to fit in up there, I'm going to need your ena."

"That's okay!" she blurts out. "Humans don't have ena, right, and that's why they're so warm. I want that. I want to be warm, too."

Uroko's smile has an edge to it.

"Then let's make a deal. In exchange for your ena, I'll give you legs. You'll become human by giving up everything that makes you seafolk."

"I accept." Manaka's voice is firm and she manages to look Uroko in the eye when she agrees. The scale of the sea god leans forward. Behind them on the shrine's mantle, the holy light flares up into columns. A whirlwind of saltflake snow whites out her vision.


	4. Chapter 4

**warning(s)** : none that I think needed to be tagged, do let me know if anything bothered you.

 **notes** : FINALLY GETTING SOMEWHERE WITH THE PLOT! If you're interested in seeing how I picture Manaka in this AU, I have art posted on my tumblr that I drew a while ago. Aaand I just realized that none of my scene breaks have been posting? Oops. I added them back for this chapter but if they don't show up, they'll definitely be on the AO3 version so you can read it there if any part of this is confusing. Also: for all intents and purposes in this fic, Manaka is disabled! She uses a wheelchair for the most part, and later on she'll be using other mobility aids to help her walk. If my portrayal of this isn't accurate, please let me know so I can fix it.

* * *

Manaka dreams of swimming. _She's swimming as fast as she can, up to where the sun streams down in bright beams to light up the water. Behind her she leaves a trail of shimmering scales and glittering flakes of ena. The sound of something shattering fills the water around her. She needs to hurry, there's somewhere she needs to be and she doesn't have enough time to get there. She needs to breathe, but when she opens her mouth only water fills it and she chokes, coughs_ -

When she opens her eyes she is overwhelmed with sensation. She is warm all over and there is something covering her that feels smooth against her skin. She is not underwater, but she can hear something that sounds like waves from somewhere farther away. Manaka braces herself against the soft material she's lying on and sits upright. She lifts her arm up to the light coming in from an open window. Her skin is dark, almost like driftwood, and the glitter of ena is gone from it. A fizzy feeling rises in her chest, like a cloud of bubbles. She examines her hands, pokes at the soft pads of her palms and the rounded curve of her nails. She combs her fingers through her hair, which is long and dark and soft to the touch. Her throat and neck are smooth, with no gills for her to breathe with. Her whole body is softer than it was before and moves differently, too.

Her new legs are thin and just as dark as the rest of her skin. Manaka leans over and watches with fascination as she moves her toes and then her legs, one at a time. It feels so different from having a tail and she giggles at the novelty of it. She flops back onto the soft things and sighs. She touches her face a few times to reassure herself that she's not dreaming, that she really did make it onto land. Her eyes feel heavy so she blinks once, twice, then closes them as exhaustion drags her back into sleep.

When Manaka wakes up again, the room is darker. The window has been closed, and there are lights on the wall that hadn't been lit earlier. There is also someone sitting nearby looking at her. Her first instinct is to curl up and hiss, but the sound doesn't come out right from her new throat, and she ends up coughing instead.

"Finally, you're awake! You've been asleep for a whole day, you know," the human says. They stand up and walk over to where she's lying down. They aren't dressed like any of the humans Manaka's seen before, not even the one she'd rescued from the storm. They look more like her, but their hair is shorter and lighter in color, pulled back from their face and tied in a round ball at the top of their head. The material covering their body is brightly colored and reflects a soft glow from the lights on the walls.

"Who-" Manaka tries to say, but her throat is dry and the words feel like something sharp is digging at her neck so she chokes on them, falling into another coughing fit. The human rushes over to her and hands her a cup.

"Drink before talking to me, it'll make your throat feel better."

Manaka obeys and automatically lifts the cup to her lips to drink. The cup is empty before she knows it and the human takes it from her to refill it.

"Who are you?" Manaka manages to ask. Her throat isn't dry anymore but it still feels like something is trying to choke her when she talks. She unfolds her legs and looks apprehensively at the human, who is giving her an equally suspicious glare.

"Isn't it bad manners to ask someone who they are without introducing yourself first?" they ask her. Manaka feels her face get hot and she looks down. Is it bad manners? She's never thought about that before. The human continues without waiting for her to answer. "My name is Sayu Hisanuma. I'm Lady Shiodome's lady-in-waiting. Who are _you_?"

"Me? I'm Manaka. Who is Lady Shiodome? Where am I?"

"Manaka who? Lady Shiodome is the one who found you lying passed out cold on the beach. She brought you back to the palace to take care of you."

"I'm Manaka….from Shioshishio, I suppose."

"Shioshishio? I've never heard of it. Must be pretty far away, if you haven't heard of my Lady." Sayu hands the refilled cup back to Manaka, who sips at it slowly this time. The water is clear and tasteless. The lack of salt somehow stings.

Sayu bustles around the room, opening the wardrobe and pulling out a few of the dresses she was able to round up from the palace's charity bins and from a few of the serving girls who looked to be around the strange girl's size. She lays them out on the bed for the girl to put on. Manaka looks at the garments like she's never seen them before, touches them a few times before giving Sayu a questioning look. It figures, she's probably another noblewoman who's never dressed herself before. Maybe she doesn't even wear dresses in whatever country she's from. That wouldn't be a surprise given how Lady Shiodome had found her- curled up in one of the shallow caves that pockmark the cliffs by the seashore, unconscious and naked as the day she was born save for two strings of gemstones around her neck.

Sayu eyes those gemstones from where she'd placed them on the nightstand in plain view for their owner, who has so far ignored them. She's never seen a string of pearls that long before, not even on the neck of Queen Kihara herself. And she's definitely never seen so many diamonds, either. What on earth was that woman doing with her valuable items in such a place? She shakes her head and picks up the first shift from the bed, intending to get Manaka dressed and presentable enough to meet with Lady Shiodome.

Getting Manaka dressed is harder than she thought it was going to be. Manaka seems to have never worn clothes in her life if her reaction to the dresses is anything to go by. She keeps tugging at the sleeves and making strange little noises at the way the skirts flutter around her legs. Speaking of her legs, it seems like Manaka can't walk, either. She'd tried to stand and had promptly fallen over with a yelp. Subsequent attempts at standing and walking had her shaking like a leaf in the wind, even though her toes and knees had seemed to move just fine. Sayu makes a mental note to move Manaka down to a room on the first floor when there's time. For now, she has Manaka wait while she goes to fetch one of the wheelchairs that the palace keeps for disabled guests.

"Where are you taking me?" Manaka asks as Sayu wheels her towards another winding ramp that leads deeper into the building. She fidgets with the string of stones wound around her neck, kicking her feet childishly when Sayu doesn't immediately answer. Manaka watches the ramp reform into stairs behind Sayu while Sayu catches her breath.

"Lady Shiodome wants to meet you properly. It's about time for dinner, so you'll be joining her in her rooms."

"Oh," Manaka says softly. She sits back in the chair and lets Sayu guide her down the hall to a door near a large painting of someone with familiar dark hair and a stormy expression on their face. Sayu knocks on the door twice and when it opens by itself, she pushes Manaka inside.

The room she finds herself in is one of the largest she's ever been in, easily bigger than her own room down in Shioshishio's coral castles and possibly bigger than Uroko's cave had been. There are several other doors lining the far wall that presumably lead further into the palace. The color scheme is muted blues and greys that remind her of the bones she's kept in her grotto. It calms the strange heavy fright in her chest that had risen up when Sayu swept her out of the room she'd been staying in. Near the center of this room is a low table filled with covered platters and a few crystal cups that sparkle in the glow from the lights on the wall. Lady Shiodome is sitting on a cushion at the table examining one of the covered platters. She rises to greet them when Sayu wheels Manaka over.

Lady Shiodome is the prettiest human Manaka has ever seen. Compared to Tsumugu, who was warm and golden, Lady Shiodome is cool and silver. Her eyes are wide and lined with black the way Uroko's were, which makes the blue-gray color of her eyes that much more striking. Her hair is long and dark, longer even than Manaka's, and she wears some of it up in loops fastened with pearl-topped sticks of bone. Suddenly shy, Manaka looks down at her lap, still playing with the string of stones around her neck. She hadn't thought about it on the way here since she had been occupied with marvelling at the palace, but what exactly is she supposed to say? How is she supposed to behave? She's never been around anyone this beautiful before.


	5. Chapter 5

**warning(s)** : none that I think need to be tagged; do let me know if anything bothered you.

 **notes** : Okayu is the Japanese version of rice porridge, a dish that's present at the table of pretty much every Asian household ever at some point. In my family, it's fed to sick people as it's gentle on the stomach and easy to digest. Apparently my scene breaks still aren't working on here or AO3, so I'm going to suffer. I don't like the look of the huge line breaks that FFN has...anyways, if you have trouble figuring out where a scene ends, please let me know and I'll try to straighten it out for you.

Also, I hate to be That Author, but I probably won't update again until I get at least one review/comment. Even if it's just a 'this sucks and i hate it' comment. I can't grow as a writer without feedback, and I would _really_ appreciate any words you have to say about this. If you're too shy to comment, you can head over to AO3 and leave a kudos instead.

* * *

Miuna eyes the table of food before her with apprehension. While the palace healer had assured her that there was nothing physically wrong with the strange young woman she'd found and brought back from the beach (asides from slight dehydration and a bump on the head), Miuna hadn't been certain that the young woman would be up to eating anything more solid than _okayu_. She'd ordered a few different bowls of the softened rice dish in addition to her and Sayu's usual dinner, just to be prepared. After all, inviting someone to dine with you and then not having anything your guest could eat was incredibly rude.

She takes a deep breath to calm herself and winces when her stomach rumbles loud enough to be heard. She was waiting for Sayu to return with the young woman before she ate, but it's getting more and more tempting to sneak a bite or two. There's a knock at the door just as she's lifting the cover of one of the dishes, and Miuna guiltily sets it back down before the door glows a soft grey to register Sayu as the person knocking and opens automatically.

Sayu navigates a wheelchair into the room, and the young woman from the beach is sitting in it. She looks a lot better than she did the last time Miuna had seen her, which had been after the healer had finished examining her and she'd been moved to one of the private suites near the sickbay. She's dressed in white and teal, the standard royal colors of Oshiooshi. A string of diamonds hangs around her neck and she's playing with the ends of it nervously. Their gazes meet for a moment and the young woman looks away first, cheeks flushing red.

Miuna doesn't realize she's still staring until Sayu clears her throat.

"My lady, I introduce to you Manaka, from Shioshishio. Manaka, this is Lady Miuna Shiodome."

"It's nice to meet you, Manaka. I'm glad you're feeling better," Miuna says politely after a slight pause. Manaka looks up at her and smiles. The smile lights up her face and Miuna feels her heart beat just a little faster at the sight.

"It's nice to meet you, too! Thank you so much for taking care of me," Manaka replies earnestly. She looks up and over at Sayu, who is busy ladling _okayu_ from the serving bowl into individual bowls for everyone, and then back at her lap, still fiddling with her necklace.

"You must be hungry," Miuna prompts after another quietly awkward pause. "Why don't we eat, and afterwards we can talk?"

Sayu helps Manaka out of her chair and onto a cushion by the table. There are three settings, one each for Miuna, Manaka, and Sayu. Miuna calmly serves herself some of the fish from a serving platter while Sayu instructs Manaka on the use of chopsticks. Sayu gives up after only a few minutes and fishes out a spoon from the assorted cutlery for Manaka to use instead. The room is quiet while they eat.

As Miuna suspected, even the small amount of _okayu_ is too much for Manaka to stomach, and the foreign girl only manages to finish half of what she'd been served. Manaka seems to enjoy the green tea, however, and Sayu refills her cup twice. Miuna keeps the conversation simple and limited to easy topics while she and Sayu finish eating. Manaka doesn't seem to know much about Shioshishio or any of the current events in the palace, but she's an avid listener and asks quite a few questions.

Miuna isn't sure what to make of her. It would seem that Sayu's initial assessment of Manaka is correct- that Manaka is from a country farther away than even their own home of Mihama in the east. What she's doing here, in Oshiooshi all by herself with no retinue or even a maid, is anyone's guess. She tries to press Manaka for information as gently as she can- where exactly is Shioshishio? What sort of family is she from, and where do they stand in their country's rankings? Manaka's replies are vague- Shioshishio is far away out across the ocean, her family has no given name that she can remember and she's not sure of their position in court- and it starts to frustrate Miuna. The conversation grows strained until Manaka starts to hide yawns behind her sleeves. Sayu takes that as a sign to end the discussion, and helps Manaka stumble back onto her chair. Manaka bids her goodnight with a shy smile of thanks that makes Miuna blush and stutter over her farewell.

As soon as Sayu and Manaka leave the room, Miuna heaves a sigh. She rubs her cheeks, which ache from keeping up a polite smile. She begins to clean up, re-covering the emptied platters and bowls while setting aside the unfinished bowls of _okayu_ onto a warming tray for tomorrow's breakfast. It's easy, methodical work that gives her a chance to start calming down from being so tense all evening.

"That didn't go too badly, did it?" she asks Sayu when the other young woman returns.

The two of them have been friends since they were children and were first introduced at the reception for the remarriage of Lord Itaru Shiodome, Miuna's father. Since Mihama was such a small province, they ended up spending a lot of time in the same social circle, and grew to be fast friends. Sayu followed Miuna to Oshiooshi as her lady in waiting when the dark-haired young woman had received the invitation to attend Prince Tsumugu Kihara's confirmation ceremony in the fall. In the public eye, Sayu politely deferred to Miuna the way someone in her job position was expected to, but in private they dropped the formality and Sayu spoke her mind freely. As she did now, upon hearing Miuna's question.

"You've done worse," Sayu says with a grin. "I think you handled it well enough. It's not like you have to worry about Manaka spreading gossip about your bad hostess manners."

"Was it really that bad?" Miuna cringes. She trails anxiously behind Sayu into the side room that serves as the other young woman's bedroom. Sayu snorts and begins to pull pins out of her bun. Her hair settles down her back in a cloud of fine amber.

"You kept staring at her the whole time you were eating. I don't think you were even aware of it but it had to have made that poor girl a little nervous. You have a very intense stare, you know."

"Ah...I did? Oh no," Miuna groans, covering her face with her hands. "I thought I was doing so well, too. I ordered too much food, and I asked too many questions, _and_ I stared at her!" She drags her sleeves over her face, cool silk soothing her heated cheeks. Sayu giggles as she undoes the ties on her skirt and top, dropping the fine fabric onto the ground and slipping into a softer robe. Miuna sighs and leans over to pick up the discarded clothes, shaking them out and folding them over her arm before depositing them into a bin for the palace maids to take care of tomorrow. "I've been wanting to talk to her all day," she continues. "I was really worried when we found her like that on the beach. There have to be people looking for her, but she wouldn't tell me anything about where she was from or who she really was."

"She _was_ quite vague about that," Sayu notes. She tugs at Miuna's sleeves and Miuna follows her friend into her own bedroom. Sayu starts the process of untying the complex knot in the back of Miuna's sash.

"I don't think it was because of amnesia or any memory problems, either. The healer who looked her over said that there was nothing wrong with her, physically or mentally, and I trust they were correct. I think Manaka was purposefully evading me."

"It's not surprising, really. She doesn't know you, she's all alone in a strange place," Sayu muses, carefully folding the un-tied sashes into neat parcels. "We can invite her back for lunch tomorrow, since you don't have any social duties until later in the evening. I've already arranged for her checkup with the healers in the morning, too."

"You think of everything," Miuna says fondly.

"Of course I do, it's my job to," Sayu says proudly. "Goodnight, Miuna."

Miuna bids her friend goodnight, slides the door to her room shut and carries on with undressing. She hangs her robes up for the palace staff to clean and put away later, slipping into a softer robe meant for sleeping in. It's still a bit earlier than the time she usually goes to sleep at, so instead of going to bed she slips back out into the reception room, heading for the lounge underneath the window set in the far wall. She settles against the pillows tiredly and turns her gaze outward.

The Shiodome suite at the Kihara's autumn palace has windows that face the ocean. The palace itself is built up on a hill a few miles away from the cliffs that line the seashore, on ground that's more stable and not riddled with deep caves. At night, when the city below is quiet, the sound of the waves crashing against rocks is audible even at the palace.

Miuna finds it quite soothing. She's lived near the ocean her entire life- the Shiodome residence in Mihama extends over the calm, shallow water of the bay their family is named for. When her mind is too loud for her to rest, she retreats to the water. Here at the Kihara's palace, she settles for curling up and staring out the window up at the stars, lulled to sleep by the sound of waves.


End file.
